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SHAKSPERE 
FESTIVAL 



Community Celebration on the 
occasion of the Three Hundredth 
Anniversary of the Death of 
William Shakspere Consisting 
of a Pageant Depicting Some 
.Scenes from the Life and Times 
§f the Dramatist; the Performance of 
"Twelfth Night"; and an Address on 
the Universality of His Works ^ 'Jt 
Given at Newark, Delaware, on April 
Twenty-eight CS, Twenty-nine, Nineteen 
Hundred CS, Sixteen ^ ^ Under the di- 
rection §f the English Department ^ 
Delaware College (^ The Women's Col- 
lege of Delaware ^ %h 



Pageant: Frazer Field 
Play: Opera House 

Lecture: The Oratory 









"T^hese promises are fair, the parties sure, 
And our induction full of prosperous hope. " 

—I Henry IV, in. i. 1,2 



A 



%r 



Ci,A431076 



M/IY I6l9i6 



FOREWORD 

FORTUNATE is this part of the Western world. 
Eiirope is in the throes of the most senseless and the 
most deadly war of modem times; America is free, 
tranquil within her own borders and at peace with 
the warring nations. England, our mother country, in the 
hearts and homes of her people has suffered the horrors of 
war", even though the "armed hoofs of hostile paces" 
have not yet bruised the flowerets on her soil. Private grief 
leaves no room for public commemoration. W^ere England 
not now engaged in bitter conflict with a sister nation, she 
would be celebrating the glories of the brightest star in her 
literary firmament; to America, far-distant in leagues but 
close in S5rmpathy of race and language, has been reserved 
the honor and responsibility of paying due respect to the 
memorj^ of the immortal Bard of Avon, Shakspere, the poet 
of England — the poet of the World. 

Three hundred years ago the Sweet Swan of Avon 
made 

"those flights upon the banks of Thames 
That so did take Eliza, and our James." 

America was then in its infancy. To Shakspere it was a 
strange unpeopled country, the possibilities of which had 
been but timidly sounded. Today, in hamlet and city, 
from sea to sea, the descendants of English men and wom- 
en — some of whom he may have known — revere his name. 
As through the years our coxmtry has grown to be a great 
nation, so the fame of Shakspere has spread here and in all 
other parts of the world. His own age, of course, little rea- 
lized that one of its bright lights would shine thereafter 
with so great a radiance. W^ith Matthew Arnold, we 
may exclaim, 

"And thou, who didst the stars and sun- 
beams knovir, 
Self-school'd, self-scann'd, self-honour' d, 

self- secured, 
Didst walk on Earth unguess'd at." 

But Shakspere's own England, the America which was 
then but a dream, and all other nations have long since 



ceased to question. "With varying degrees of popularity^, 
Shakspere's plays have lived through the ages. The music 
of his verse and the splendor of his imagination and the 
greatness of his thought have been expressed, through the 
imperfect medium of the translator, in more than thirty 
tongues. It has been said that he was both of an age and for 
all time. He was likewise for all people. For where the 
means of communication makes it possible, Shakspere is 
read and acted. And here in America, as elsewhere, we 
think of his plays as embodying lastingly in beautiful lan- 
guage the deepest feelings and the loftiest conceptions of the 
human soul. 

Genius is ever inexplicable. Psychologists and scientists 
have done much to explain man — the normal and the ab- 
normal. The super-man has so far been beyond their 
grasp. To them and to us la5mien it is given in the 
final analysis but to wonder and revere. Shakspere the 
man, the poet, the dramatist, has yielded much to seekers 
after truth in details of character, of imaginative in- 
sight, of selective and constructive skill. He was a man 
among men, a gifted poet in a great creative age, a drama- 
tist who took the best of that which all men knew and 
moulded it to his liking in the crucible of his constructive 
talent. But of that which lay beneath character, beneath 
poetic and constructive talent, of the informing spirit which 
gave Shakspere the power to hold the world of men as in 
the hollow of his hand — to see and feel, to think and act v/ith 
Romeo or Desdemona, with Othello or Cleopatra, with 
Falstaff or Beatrice — of that heaven-sent gift which enabled 
him to understand and interpret human nature as no other 
man has done, the inystery" is open not to mortal eye. 



\ C/2oi.&<i, 




THE PAGEANT 

PROLOGUE 

To all gentle men and fair ladies here assembled to 
commemorate with reverence the passing of that 
most honored poet, William Shakspere, we render 
greeting. And that we may not be found remiss in 
offering something that should be a token of our re- 
gard for him, we here submit to your gentle consid- 
eration such parts of the story of his life as have 
seemed most apt for this occasion. Here you will 
find presented in song and dance and pageantry all 
that befell the poet during those years wherein his 
genius was unfolding; of which the enactment doth 
fall easily into three parts, the first being the story 
of the little boy, the second that of the young man, 
and the third that of the playwright. Receive our 
pageant graciously, we pray you, and whether you 
find in it some semblance of the truth, or whether all 
be merest fancy, forbid it not. Forget today, and 
live once more w^ith Shakspere. 

PART THE FIRST 

Whist! 
From the woods, 
From the dells, 
From the forest dark. 
There's a whisper, a stirring, a sound, — O hark! 
Do you hear the tinkle of fairy bells? 
The leaves of the forest are rustling green, 
The morning is misty, with silvery sheen. 
And the dewdrops are glittering bright, 
When over the hill 
And out from the trees 
The hobgoblin fairies come swift on the breeze, j^^e hobgoblin 

Swift from the shadows of night. fairies enter 

And they dance, 
And they laugh. 
And they sing, ho! ho! 
And down in the glade where the wind flowers blow, 
There's a music sweet. 
With a magic beat. 
And a twinkling of m5aiad tiny feet. 



Copyright 1916— Geitiude E. Brady 



They -weave a 
magic ring 



Vfrhereby woe 

shall come to 

mortals. 



A company of 

children enter 

the glade to 

play. 



perceive the 
fairy ring, 



and wonder at 
its meaning. 



They accost a 
troop of milk- 
maids. 



Then with a shout of fiendish glee 
The mischievous Puck calls company 
To a diabolical prank. 

And the hobgoblins plot 

A mysterious thing, 

They choose a spot, 

And they weave a ring. 
Where the rushes are growing rank. 
Nobody knows and no one can tell 
Half the enchantment of that spell; 

But round and round, 

Without a sound, 

They weave a circle on the ground. 

And now let mortals beware! beware! 
For woe to him that enters there! 

The gentle sun shone merrily of a morning, and the 
little birds, whereof the leaves of the forest do shelter each 
warbler, brake into song, when from over the hill came a 
company of children trooping, seeking to disport themselves 
in the wood hard by the town of Stratford. For it is ever 
the custom of children to be up and a-doing, ere the greedy 
sun hath licked the dewdrops from the grass, or yet their 
elders have oped a sleepy eye. 

So it was that both boys and little girls, of every age 
and fineness of dress soever, ran hand in hand down an high 
embankment whereby Nature had closed in as fair a dell as 
hath ever been given children to discover. But scarcely^ 
had they entered into this rushy glade when they perceived 
a strange thing, whereof they knew not the meaning, for in 
the very heart of tlie fair meadow there lay a great circle, 
of a dimension whereto they knew not the equal. Nor could 
they devine the substance whereof it was made, for there 
appeared not any thing which would bewray its workman- 
ship, neither by whom nor of what it was created, but only 
an unnatural greenness of the grass. 

And as they marvelled over this thing, there came that 
w^ay a company of milkmaids, and with them a goodly 
number of village swains, for even as it doth behoove the 
milkmaid to be up betimes and to her task, so is it seemly 
that the swain shoxild greet her as she goeth, for of a truth, 
Love will allow no sluggard. And as this company tripped 
blithely to their labors, singing a gay ballad whereof the first 
line doth run, "There came a Duke a-riding," the little folk 
stopped them and enquired of them what might be the 
meaning of this strange thing which they had but lately 



perceived. The which when they saw, the maidens cried 
out, saying, "Of a certain, it is a fairy ring." (For maids 
have ever a wisdom in the ways of fairy folk, having at- 
tained thereunto, no doubt, by their furtive pursual of those 
charms that do incite to Love.) 

Now when the children heard this, they were the more 
eager to know further of it, but none would tell them more. 
"Nay, but hush," quoth the maidens, "'tis a witchery. Talk 
not of it, lest the spell seize you." Whereupon they did let 
fall the continuance of the matter and applied themselves to 
other pursuits, as the playing of certain games in the man- 
ner of the day, wherein they both sang some old ballad and 
enacted the story as the melody progressed. 

It befell, as they were in the midst of the revelry of 
such a game, that there was seen coming from the village, 
somewhat tardily, the little Will Shakspere, a comely lad, 
and merry as a bird on a bough. And w^hen the children 
had greeted him and made of him their number, they showed 
him the fairy ring, accounting before him the while all that 
the maidens had related. 

"By my troth," quoth he, "an I be so affrighted at them 
which I have never seen, let me be called a coward and 
worthy of bewitchment!" So saying, he stepped boldly in- 
side the ring, and straightway fell down under a spell. 
Perceiving the which, all w^ere seized by a sudden panic and 
speedily betook themselves off, ere ever they might give 
succor to him upon whom so strange a calamity had fallen. 

Then down from the wood. 

And up from the glade. 
And out from behind every tree. 
Come the naughty hobgoblins, who prance 

As they dance. 
And shout with a devilish glee. 

And they gather together, 

A fiendish crew. 

And they plot such a thing 

As a goblin can do. 

But O! what sound is this that steals 
So sweet along the forest glade? 
Ethereal music soft reveals 
Majestic presence, unafraid. 

Titania comesi 

With a shriek, 

With a run. 
The hobgoblins scatter, and everyone 



who expledn 
the nature 
of the ring 



and warn the 
children to 
beweure of it. 

They then play 
certain games, 
until 



Will Shakspere 
enters. 



He defies the 
enchantment of 
the fairy ring, 
and is bewitched. 

The children, 
terrified, run 
awa;^. 



The hobgoblins 
return, and 
gloat over their 
captive, 



but scatter upon 
the approach of 
Titania. 



Her fairies break 

the enchantment 

with a dance. 



They give him 

magic gifts, Ti- 

tania bestowing 

upon him the 

genius of 

poetry. 



With a leap, 
With a bound, 
Rushing headlong, pell-mell, 
Disappears in the wood with a terrified yell. 

And then, with rainbow tints of rarest fancy, 

Amid the lights of twinkling silvered feet, 

Titania comes, in beauty iridescent. 

With flash of fire, and music breathing sweet. 

Her robe is star-shot, and from out her tresses 

A jewel glances with a tender flame. 

And deep w^ithin her misty eyes, the secret 

Of hopes men love to dream, yet dare not name. 

But when she sees the boy she pauses, startled, 
Swift teardrops dim the crystal of her eyes; 
She weeps, and all the leafy glade is silent, 
Save where the treetops stir with rustling sighs. 
But see! W^ith rhythmic mystery of motion, 
And tender music throbbing, piercing sweet. 
The fairies dance, and break the wild enchantment 
W^ith tracings sinuous of magic feet. 

And now they give him gifts, unfold the secret 

Of whispering winds that mourn across the lea, 

Reveal the spot where brightest sunbeams linger. 

And point the wistful beauty of the sea. 

The dancers pause. Titania, shimmering, mystic, 

Bestows a gift, all other gifts above. 

And from the sleeping sovil she makes a poet, 

Of rarest promise and immortal love. 

Then hushed and still, 

Across the hill 
The fairies steal away; 

The shadows fall. 

The wee birds call, 
And night enfolds the day. 



A. company of 
youths and 
maidens enter, 
singing. 



PART THE SECOND 

It was a May morning, that time when roses are most 
fresh in dew, and the dainty nightingale greets the jocund 
day with plaintive melody. Scarce had the sun peeped 
over yon wooded crest when there came from the town of 
Stratford a gay company of youths and maidens, purposing 
to celebrate those revels whereby it was ever their custom 



to usher in the May Day. And as they came tripping 
merrily", they sang a festal song, whereof the matter, 
though of little moment, is herein endited : 

" Ye country maidens gather dew, 
While yet the morning breezes blow ; 
The fairy rings are fresh and new, 
Then cautious mark them as ye go. 

Arise, arise, the night is past, 

The skylark hails the dawn of day ; 

Care, get thee hence, fron this place fly! 

For mirth rules here this morn of May. 

Ye youths w^ho owjtj love's ardent power, 
To yonder shelter's bank repair; 
There seek the early opening ffower 
To deck the bosom of the fair. 

Tho' ages end and manners fade, 
And ancient revels pass away, 
I hope it never will be said. 
Forgotten is sw^eet Flora Day. " 

When that they had reached that part where the mead- 
ow reacheth out in fair and open smoothness, "Of a truth," 
quoth one, "this is a goodly spot; I entreat you, join me in a 
dance." And when they questioned what it should be, the 
lad replied, "Faith, I care not. Let it be Gathering Pea- 
scods an ye will." Thereto all right heartily" fell into the 
measure w^ith such good w^ill that it seemed that their 
gaiety urged on their feet to dance, and their dancing ever 
provoked their gaiety. 

Now it befell, as they were in the midst of this jolly revel, 
that there joined the company" young 'Will Shakspere, 
scarce more than a lad, yet had he early taken upon him the 
sorrows of manhood, having been wedded these several 
years. And with him he did bear his huntsman's bag, hav- 
ing but lately returned from seeking of the game, and tho 
that his spoils were but little, yet did he display them with 
as keen a relish as did ever school boy" his first cock-robin. 
And what with pushing and jostling and the buzzing of 
many tongues, so intent was everyone withal that none no- 
ted the advent of two men, strangers to this gay company, 
both in attire and expression of countenance. Thus it was 
that unperceived the sheriffs of the law approached, and ere 
yet any w^ere aw^are of their presence, seized roughly on the 
young Shakspere and dragged him off, willy-nilly, to be 
tried before my lord Lucy for poaching of my lord's deer. 

Sad indeed was that company that an occasion so fraught 
with ill omen should serve to cause suspension of their mer- 



They join in 
a dance. 



Will Shakspere 
enters, returning 
from the hunt. 



The sheriffs 
approach 



and arrest the 
young Shakspere 
for poaching of 
the deer. 



The Morris 
dancers enter. 



Maid Marian is 

crowned Queen of 

the May, with 

song and dance. 



Shakspere re- 
turns, scribbling 
a mocking verse 
■writ against 
Lord Liucy, 



rymsikmg, and I doubt not they would then and there have 
retired to their homes without further thought of the May- 
revels, for the youth w^as a great favorite among them, had 
they not heard from far the fiddling of a band of minstrels 
such as are wont to usher in the Morris dancers. And ere 
long appeared the whole number of the Morris-men, in 
order as follows: 

First, six foresters, clad in Lincoln green, each with a 
bugle horn attached to a baldric of silk ; and after them 

Robin Hood, attired in a grass-green tunic, his head bound 
with a garland of forest leaves; and then 

Little John, walking at his right hand, and at his left. 
Friar Tuck, with his quarter staff. Then came 

Six of the jolly outlaw's attendants, and after them 

Four maidens, in bright coloured kirtles, strewing flowers; 
foUow^ed immediately by 

Maid Marian, elegantly habited in a turquoise tunic, 
reaching to the ground, decked with gay flowers, her fair 
hair falling into many golden ringlets upon her shoxolders ; 
then came 

A company of maidens in attendance ; and after them, 
closing up the rear", 

The Hobby-horse and the Dragon. 

And when that the youths and maidens of the village 
perceive the approach of the merry band, they straightway 
run to greet them, and setting Maid Marian on a gay throne, 
after decking her with vari-coloured garlands, they crown 
her the Queen of the May, making the forest echo with 
their gay singing and laughter as they dance before her. 

And now the young Shakspere returns slowly from the 
village, still smarting from the chastisement suffered at the 
behest of Lord Lucy for the encroachment of the game pre- 
serves ; and as he walks he scribbles a mocking verse, writ 
in derision of my lord, wherein he doth make sport of the 
Lucy arms, being three luces rampant argent, after this fash- 
ion: 

Who seeks a hart 

In yonder part 
Of Lucy's wooded farms ? 

How could he wish 

To catch a fish 
'Mid bailly's hoarse alarms ? 

Alas ! the youth, 

Abused in truth, 



Knows not the clodpate's arms; 
For instead of meeting a noble hind, 
Three louses rampant shall he find. 

And indeed, so hot with rage was the young scribbler 
that, not content with reading of the ignoble lines to the vil- 
lagers, he needs must stick them on a nearby tree, where 
every passerby might scan them over. 

But now the green foresters made good haste to set up 
the May Pole, amid the reiterated acclamations of the spec- 
tators, after which both woodsmen and maidens danced 
about it according to their custom, weaving in and out the 
vari-coloured ribands wherewith the pole was bedecked, 
the Hobby-horse prancing and curvetting before the popu- 
lace the while, and the Dragon hissing horribly. 

Anon in the midst of all this revelry" there entered my 
lord Lucy, and after watching for a time the villagers mak- 
ing merry in their rustic sports, he turned as if to go, when 
his eye chanced upon the ballad stuck upon the tree ; and 
after reading of it, he straightway fell into a passion and 
demanded that the author be clapped into prison. And of 
a truth, there might have ended the adventures of this young 
man had not his father, hearing all the circumstance, come 
running from the town, and at his heels she that had been 
Anne Hathaway but was now the wife of Shakspere, to- 
gether with the little girl Susanna. And the father, being a 
man of some importance, persuaded upon Lord Lucy that 
his son be released upon the promise that he should be taken 
to London and apprenticed to a trade. Whereupon Lord 
Lucy departed with his attendants. 

But here Anne Hathaway set herself to sobbing and 
scolding and so disturbing the company generally^ that the 
Morris dancers, unable to abide her complaining longer, 
betook themselves to another part, and of a truth the young 
man Shakspere himself was fain to shake her off and leave 
quickly with his father to talce up his journey to London; 
whereto Anne Hathaway followed him with her eyes, 
until, at the urgence of the little Susanna, she stumbled 
blindly whither the tinkling of the Morris bells led her. 



which after read- 
ing, he sticks 
upon a tree. 



All then join in 
the May Pole 
dance, during 
which 



Lord Liucy re- 
turns and reads 
the verse. 



He demands that 
the youth be 
clapped into prison, 
but the boy's 
father, entering 
with Anne Hatha- 
way, obtains his 
release. 



Anne Hathaway 
weeps at this 
promise of de- 
parture. The 
Morris dancers 
go off. 

Shakspere leaves 
for London. 



The Earl of 

Southampton 

enters, to await 

the Queen, 

who arrives with 
all her court. 



Sir Walter Ra- 
leigh performs a 
gallant deed. 
Southampton 
greets the Queen, 



and summons 
Shakspere. 

A court dance 
ensues. 



PART THE THIRD 

Now it befell, as the years rolled by and the reign of her 
most gracious Majesty, Elizabeth, grew ripe in splendor, 
that there were held throughout the length and breadth of 
merry England rich festivals, whereby the lords of the 
realm sought each to shine in his sovereign's favor. And 
with this intent, my lord the Earl of Southampton, having 
courteously implored the Queen to do him honor with her 
presence, repaired with a goodly number of his followers 
to a fair spot within the confines of his estate. Nor had 
they scarce taken up their position there when the blast of 
trumpets arjiounced the near approach of her Majesty, 
together with her court, in order as follows : first 

Four youths, strew^ing fresh gravel to renew^ the road- 
way ; and after them 

Eight heralds, richly clad in red and silver ; next 

The Chancellor, bearing the seals in a red silk pvirse, at- 
tended by two lords, one of whom carried the Royal scep- 
ter, and the other the sword of state ; following them 

Sir Walter Raleigh, alone ; then 

The Ladies in Waiting, with the Mistress of the Ward- 
robe at their head ; after them 

Two pages ; and immediately thereafter 

Her Majesty, the Queen, attended by her footmen and 
the members of the Royal Guard ; and last 

The Lords and Ladies of the Court. 

All this procession approached the great staircase, at the 
foot of which waited the Earl of Southampton, and as the 
Queen advanced, all knelt in obeisance. But close by the 
head of the stairway she halted, in dismay, for before her 
was a spot of mud where a heedless gravel-strewer had 
failed of his duty. Yet hardly had she paused when Sir 
Walter, coming quickly forward, flung down his great 
embroidered cloak, that the Queen might cross thereon, 
whereat her Majesty hesitated, blushed, and passed quickly 
over. And at the head of the great stairway Southampton 
met her, and having greeted her, led her to the Throne of 
State, a little to one side of the enclosure. 

Then was a page sent to fetch the writer Shakspere, the 
Earl being his patron, who was to play with his company 
of actors before the Queen ; and while that his advent was 
awaited, certain Lords and Ladies danced before her 
Majesty, following the steps of a quaint old measure. 



After which, the poet Shakspere entered, and after him Shakspere enters 

his company of players ; and there, in the presence of the *"*^ presents 

Queen and all her court was played the new comedy of As ^® ^°" ^^^^ ^*- 
You Like It, whereof the story is told hereafter^. 

The day being now late, the company here broke up, and 
the Queen, accompanied by her court, with all the villagers ^® '^I^^Te T 
and children thronging to attend her, rode off triumphantly' ^^^^ ^" procession. 
in festival procession. 



Here 

endeth 

the sfory 
of the 

Pageant 



J-iXAXxA^dj^ ^ I '^^O^.M^ 



AS YOU LIKE IT 

THE SCENES OF THE PLAY 
All sJ'cenes are in the Forest of Arden 

I The exiled Duke with Jaques, Amiens, and other 
Lords, is enjoying a carefree existence in the Forest. 

II His daughter Rosalind, disguised as a shepherd 
boy, in company with her cousin Celia, and the jester 
Touchstone, arrives at Arden, and finds her lover, Orlando, 
whom she playfully persuades to pay her court. 

III Touchstone makes love to Audrey, a country 
wench. 

IV Further love passages between Rosalind and 
Orlando. 

V Orlando has been promised by his shepherd boy 
acquaintance that the real Rosalind w^ill shortly appear. 
Touchstone and Audrey present themselves as bride and 
groom before the Duke, Jaques, and Orlando, and a mom- 
ent later Rosalind comes and is warmly greeted by her 
father and her lover. 



THE PERSONS OF THE 

Duke of Burgundy, living in Banishment 

Amiens, a Lord, attending upon the Duke 

First Lord, attending upon the Duke 

Second Lord, attending upon the Duke 

Jaques, a Lord, attending upon the Duke 

Rosalind, Daughter to the Duke; disguised 
as a man, Ganimed 

Touchstone, a Clown, attending on Celia and 
Rosalind 

Celia, Cousin to Rosalind; in disguise, Aliena 

Orlando, younger Brother to Oliver 

Audrey, a country) w^ench 

Oliver, eldest Son to Sir Rowland de Boys 



PLAY 

F. E. Proctor, '19 
L. G. MulhoUand, '16 
I. H. Boggs, '19 

G. H. Ferguson, '19 
E. E. Ewing, '19 

Amelia Leichter, '19 

J. G. Craig, '19 
Grace Rono, '19 
E. E. Plumley, '19 
Alice Jefferis, '18 
H. W^. Ewing, '17 



PLEASANT 

Conceited C omedie 

CALLED 



TWELFTH NIGHT 
or 

WHAT YOU W^ILL 
"Written by W. Shakspere 

and 

Plaid publiquely by the Students 

of the 

Colleges of Delaware 



19 16 



"Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounc'd it to 
you, trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as 
many of your players do, I had as lief the town crier 
spoke my lines <U^ Suit the action to the word, the 
word to the action; w^ith this special observance, that 
you o'erstep not the modesty of nature <i^ For any- 
thing so overdone is from the purpose of playing, 
whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to 
hold, as 't were, the mirror up to nature; to show^ vir- 
tue her ow^n feature, scorn her ow^n image, and the 
very age and body of the time his form and pres- 



sure." 



-Hamlet, III. 3. 1-37 



THE STORY OF THE PLAY 

'If Music be the food of Love, play on." 

Viola and her brother, Sebastian, have been shipwrecked 
on the coast of Ill5ma. Separated from him, and thinking 
that he has been drowned, she determines to strike out for 
herself and seek her fortxine in this strange country. From 
the Captain, she hears of Duke Orsino and incidentally of 
his suit for the hand of the fair Olivia. Disguised as a boy, 
she obtains preferment in Orsino's court. Viola as the boy 
Cesario soon wins the confidence of Orsino; at the same time, 
with the heart of a woman, she conceives a strong love for 
him. Orsino, however, not knowing that the boy is other 
than he appears, tells Cesario of his passion for Olivia and 
sends him to woo her — although as Viola says, "V^hoe'er I 
woo, mj^elf would be his wife". 

In the house of Olivia, Viola meets several opposing forces 
of varying importance. Sir Toby Belch, Olivia's kinsman, 
and Fabian, a retainer, encourage Sir Andrew Aguecheek, 
a knight of great fortime and of small sense, to press his 
suit for the favor of the hard-hearted lady. Malvolio, the 
Steward, full of self-conceit, is tricked by Maria into the be- 
lief that Olivia is in love with him. To his deception and to 
his later discomfiture. Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, Fabian, Maria, 
and Feste, the clown, all contribute. The greatest obstacle to 
the success of Viola's suit in behalf of the Duke, however, 
lies in the sudden liking for Viola which springs up in Olivia's 
heart ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 

But, •would you undertake another suit, 
I had rather hear you to solicit that. 
Than music from the spheres." 

The opposition which Sir Andrew makes to Viola's suit 
culminates in a duel. Antonio, a sea captain, who had 
saved Sebastian from drowning, comes on the scene just in 
time to protect Viola, whom he mistakes for Sebastian, and to 
prevent possibly serious results. Viola cannot vinderstand 
the references to a rescue from the sea and to favors shown 



A great while ago the world begun, 
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, 
But that's all one, our play is done, 
And we'll strive to please you every day. 

—Twelfth Night, V. i. 414-417 



SHAKSPERE: BOTH OF AN AGE AND 
FOR ALL TIME 

AN ADDRESS 

BY 

Harry Morgan Ayres, Ph. D. 

Shakspere followed the fashion; he conformed to the changing 
taste of his theater. Modern scholarship has triumphantly demon- 
strated this. But in so doing it has only given us the measure of 
his greatness ; for we have in abundance the work of the worthies 
who set the fashions that he follow^ed, and not many of us read 

iHGITt fS^ w^ t^^ f^^ tS^ t5^ w^ t^^ f^^ (5^ f^^ 

"Shakspere planned his plays to fit the theater of his day; they 
do not always perfectly fit the modern theater. There they some- 
times creak a bit. But we need not on that account give ourselves 
■wholly over to pity for his crudity and archaism. If the workings 
creak, it is not ^with the grinding of an axe. If he sometimes bores 
us ■with a set description, a clumsy exposition, a Jest that has lost 
its savor, he at any rate has a story to teU us. He does not bore 
us with a thesis ^ J- S- J- J- J- S- 

"These his actors are all spirits; obedient to his Prospero's 
■wand they should go about the business of setting before us the 
story. For that they exist. But so often one, and then another, 
comes alive, puts on Eesh and blood, and steps forth -with all the 
dimensions of humanity, while beneath his ■weight the fabric of 
the plot groans like the skiff of Charon, built for shades, beneath 
the weight of the living Aeneas. ^ J* 

Shakspere's supreme gift was language — not the Pentecostal 
gift of tongues, though one should remember that the ' small Latin 
and less Greek" was after all the verdict of one of the chief 
scholars of that day; but his was a po^wer to use his native speech 
as none succeeded in doing before him and none has dared since. 



TO THE MEMORY OF MY BELOVED 
MASTER WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 

Soul of the age ! 
The applause! delight! the wonder of our stage! 
My Shakespeare rise! I 'will not lodge thee by- 
Chaucer, or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lie 
A little further off, to make thee room. : 
Thou art a monument without a tomb; 
And art alive still, w^hile thy book doth live, 
And we have w^its to read and praise to give. 
That I not mix thee so, my brain excuses, 
I mean with great, but disproportioned Muses; 
For if I thought my judgment were of years, 
I should commit thee surely w^ith thy peers. 
And tell how^ far thou didst our Lily outshine. 
Or sporting Kyd, or Marlowe's mighty line. 
And though thou hadst small Latin and less Greek, 
From thence to honor thee, I w^ill not seek 
For names : but call forth thundering AEschylus, 
Euripides, and Sophocles to us, 
Pacuvius, Accius, him of Cordoua dead. 
To live again, to hear thy buskin tread, 
And shake a stage; or w^hen thy socks w^ere on. 
Leave thee alone for the comparison 
Of all that insolent Greece or haughty Rome 
Sent forth, or since did from their ashes come. 
Triumph, my Britain ! thou hast one to show. 
To w^hom all scenes of Europe homage o-we. 
He w^as not of an age, but for all time ! 

— Ben Jonson 



AFTERWORD 

With hearty encouragement and unselfish aid from our 
friends in the two Colleges and in the commvinity, we have 
tried in a humble way to celebrate the fame of the master 
genius of English Literature. To all those who have con- 
tributed in any way to the carrying out of the Festival 
exercises, we here return grateful thanks. Where so many 
thanks are due, we may truly say with Burgundy, "Elec- 
tion makes not up on such conditions. " Our acknowl- 
edgment of indebtedness must be at best inadequate. Lest 
we be thought unmindful, however, of the special help which 
has so generously been given to us in planning, training, and 
execution, we wish to record with deep appreciation our 
obligations to 

Professor Myrtle V. Caudell Professor Mary E. Rich 
Miss Alfreda Mosscrop Miss Marion Butterworth 

Professor F. B. HiUs Professor C. A. McCue 

Mrs. Herman R. Tyson 

Dean Winifred J. Robinson 

THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH 

Wilbur Owen Sypherd 
George Elliott Dutton 
Frederick Julius Pohl 
Gertrude Elizabeth Brady 



o4nd so here endeth the Book of The Shakspere F'es- 
tival given by the Colleges of Delaware on April Twenty- 
eight and Twenty-nine, Nineteen Hvindred and Sixteen, at 
Newark, Delaware ^;- ^ ,a ^ . 

Designed and printed by Master Craftsmen of Kells, 
at their Shop, which is on Welsh Lane, a road leading from 
Newark to Cooch's Bridge j* 




014 156 829 2 • 




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014 156 829 2 



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pH 8.5 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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